A modern variation of a traditional technique in which leather is submerged in water to harden it was used for the Bowls Project.

Lucie Rie was one of the 20th century’s most significant and celebrated potters, whose work stands out for its uncompromising modernity. In order to produce a special object series based on an imaginary meeting between Rie’s iconic shapes and the most advanced leather craftsmanship, Loewe joined efforts with José Luis Bazán, a third-generation artisan from Benaocaz, a small town close to Ubrique, in the province of Cádiz, known for its high concentration of Spain’s leather knowledge.

Working with Bazán, whose workshop specialises in combining age-old artisanal methods with newly developed ideas, Anderson set out to reinterpret the essence of Rie’s work in a new context and unexpected material.

With colours adapted from Lucie Rie’s palette, including the uranium yellow the artist used for some of her vessels, the project demonstrates how leather can perform as a rigid material, applicable in a broad range of objects, both functional and decorative.

Three sets of 50 unique bowls in various sizes, forming an ensemble that plays with scale and perception, blurring the boundary between sculpture and design and confounding sight and touch through surprising materiality.

Each object was created by Jonathan Anderson using an innovative moulding process and sculpting the leather into its final, distinctive shape by hand.

Transferring the codes of pottery onto leather, the underside of each bowl features two seals: the letter J, for the designer’s name, and Loewe’s modern, mirrored insignia, the Anagram.

The Bowls Project will be exhibited in the Loewe stores in Milan, Madrid, Paris, Tokyo and Beijing.